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To Cry Or Not To Cry ‘Wolf’ — Or Something In Between?

It’s fortunate that so many organizations have stepped forward … Safari Club International, a hunter-supported entity, and Conservation Northwest, a pro-large-carnivore organization based in Bellingham.

Images recorded by small cameras mounted to deers' necks in NC WA will hopefully provide a glimpse into wolf-deer interactions. Courtesy of Justin Dellinger

Editor’s note: This story originally appeared in the August issue of Northwest Sportsman, as The Big Pic.

REPUBLIC, Wash.—No matter your stance on wolves – hate ’em, love ’em,
or anything in between – it’s time to acknowledge they’re here to stay
throughout much of Eastern Washington. Federal and state protections and
wolf-rich bordering territories mean that new packs can move in to fill
voids, or take over ones that are created. Prime example: When
professional hunters exterminated the Wedge Pack that was preying on
northern Stevens County cattle last summer, it was not long before at
least three wolves showed up again.

Yes, wolves do impact our big game herds. But instead of wildly
speculating on what that already is or will be in the future as more
packs emerge – chatter that ranges from “They’ll wipe out all our deer
and elk, then start in on ranch stock” to “They’ll simply improve our
big game herds, weaning out the sick and the lame, giving the healthy
animals better forage” – maybe it’s time for a real science-based study.

Now, thanks to a mix of relatively new technologies, teams of
wildlife biologists willing to put in tons of field work, and a wide
range of funding sources, that’s what we’re getting. It’s a five-year
undertaking entitled the “Washington Wolf-Deer Project” taking place in
large tracts of southern Ferry and eastern Okanogan Counties, including a
good-sized chunk of the Colville Reservation. Using ear tags, radio-,
GPS- and camera-equipped collars, as well as trail cams laid out in huge
grids, biologists are studying mule deer and whitetail habits in four
areas, two occupied by wolves, two without. The former are in the
territories of the Colville Tribes’ Strawberry and Nc’icn packs, each
with six or seven members. The latter are Forest Service land around Mt.
Bonaparte and Tunk Mountain, both of which are also part of the
Washington Department of Fish & Wildife’s Okanogan East Game
Management Unit.

“We want to determine how deer behave when they know wolves are
around compared to when they’re not,” states University of Washington
PhD. candidate Justin Dellinger, who is conducting the study. “Are they
more vigilant, constantly looking around, more alert to predation
danger, thus spending less time foraging? And if so, what impact is this
having?

“As we capture more deer in coming winters, we’ll get real data on
whether or not the ones in the wolf zones have put on less weight during
the good weather, thus going into winter with less fat reserves, and
are they having lower pregnancy rates? Everyone understands that wolves
do kill deer in their territories, but now we also want to know what
their overall impact is. Does just having wolves around decrease a
deer’s chances of survival or a doe’s chances of successfully rearing a
fawn?”

DELLINGER’S INITIAL DEER CAPTURE season began in
early January and concluded at the end of March. Using collapsible
clover traps and drop nets, 20 whitetail and 18 muleys were ear tagged
and fitted out with the new collar cameras – tiny cameras attached just
below the lower jaw. As the study progresses, more deer will be captured
and similarly outfitted.

“These cameras allow us to see everything the deer sees,” he
explains. “Its daily habitat, other deer in its herd, as well as nearby
predators – coyotes, mountain lions, wolves. They’re set for six hours
per day, three hours in the morning, three in the evening, and then they
fall off after two or three weeks. Then we retrieve them and have 80 to
90 hours of film to study.”

Remote cameras, very similar to a sportsman’s trail camera, are
systematically set up over large grids. Triggered by movement, they’re
aimed at capturing images of ear-tagged deer as well as anything else
that moves in front of their lens.

“If after several years a deer tag doesn’t show up on any of our
cameras, there’s a good chance that that animal is dead,” Dellinger
says, “so at the completion of our study this will be one more piece of
the vast amount of data we’ll have collected. Then using proven
formulas, we’ll be able to determine survival rates in both wolf and
nonwolf territories.

“Plus, these grid photos also give us lots of other valuable
information such as deer movement and predator presence. We know that
wolves don’t tolerate other canines in their territories, so there’s a
good chance that the cameras in their zones will pick up fewer coyotes,
feral dogs, even domestic dogs that free range, but will they also
capture fewer mountain lions? So far the only camera-collared deer kills
we’ve checked out were two does, both in nonwolf zones, both killed by
mountain lions, but that’s too small a sample to conclude anything.

“Thanks to the cooperation of the Colville Tribes, we’ve also put GPS
collars on three wolves, the two alphas in one territory and one
subordinate animal in another. And we hope to get more wolves collared
as our study progresses, giving us another set of data to understand
what happens in the field. We already know that our wolf packs cover
huge territories, one pack ranging over 275 square miles, another over
400.”

Why do wolves cover so much ground? Have they seriously thinned out
one herd and so are simply moving on to find better prey numbers, or is
it more complex than that? As hunters, we know that deer and elk wise up
in a hurry, becoming much harder to find once a hunting season opens,
so it stands to reason they become alerted to the presence of wolves
just as fast. When their prey becomes overly wary, maybe that’s when the
wolves pick up and move, increasing their hunting odds by pursuing less
alert animals in their territories.

The Okanogan East GMU has been one of the state’s steadier producers
of deer in recent years, with a rising harvest trend over the last
decade. By state harvest data, general-season hunters killed 653 there
last year, up 100 animals from how many were taken in 2003’s hunt.

A STUDY OF THIS SIZE COMES WITH A fairly hefty price
tag, one that includes everything from the costs of all that high-tech
stuff to travel to many man hours of in-the-field work, so it’s
fortunate that so many organizations have stepped forward. The list
includes the National Science Foundation, the University of Washington,
the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, Washington
Department of Fish & Wildlife and U.S. Forest Service, as well as
two private groups, Safari Club International, a hunter-supported
entity, and Conservation Northwest, a pro-large-carnivore organization
based in Bellingham.

“Yes, it’s sort of a meeting in the middle,” Dellinger explains,
“with everyone on board, all of them wanting the best data possible,
recognizing that a lot of diverse interests have to be accounted for.
Sportsmen need viable numbers of deer and elk to hunt, ranchers need to
make a living, and now that wolves are back in the picture, we have to
know more about their impact.”

Of course, no matter how informative this study is and no matter what
its findings tend to show us, it won’t answer all our questions, and it
definitely won’t be an end to the always-passionate debates over this
large canine’s return to Washington. But it’s a very good start, a big
step in the right direction, giving us a more accurate picture of the
true impact wolves are having on our big game herds.

Editor’s note: This story originally appeared in the August issue
of Northwest Sportsman magazine. Special thanks to Justin Dellinger for
providing photos for the print piece.